New Delhi : American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health have joined hands with experts from Indian institutes, including New Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International, in efforts to bring down India's child mortality rates. They are conducting clinical trials in India investigating two live, oral vaccines for their ability to prevent rotavirus diarrhoea. A senior US embassy health official said in Delhi an Indo-US collaborative project could develop India's first vaccine against Rotavirus, which causes diarrhoea. Some 100,000 children die in India due to diarrhoea each year. The initiative is financially supported by the Gates Foundation's Children's Vaccine Program. The Indo-US Vaccine Action Program is also witnessing several other exciting developments, including cutting edge research on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases.

Prime Minister expected to attend TB conference
Wednesday, March 24, 2004

New Delhi : International health officials will gather in New Delhi to discuss global efforts to combat tuberculosis (TB), a disease, which kills nearly two million people worldwide each year. The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is expected to attend the Stop TB Partners Forum's conference, which brings together representatives of anti-TB groups, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the 22 countries where the disease is epidemic. Among the issues to be discussed will be the link between TB and HIV -- health workers worldwide are increasingly concerned about TB's deadly link with HIV/AIDS, with AIDS patients more prone to contract TB due to their lowered immunity levels.

In view of this, a pilot project, India's revised national tuberculosis control programme (RNTCP) -- an application of the universally accepted DOTS strategy -- was launched in 1993. Over the last ten years, it has expanded into a full-fledged campaign, which covers more than 744 million of the country’s 1.068 billion population. However, according to some independent estimates, around 20,000 individuals in India contract this disease every day. Left untreated, a person with active TB can infect between 10 and 15 people in one year, say experts. A senior official in the Union health and family welfare ministry, said : "This is a highly infectious disease and that is why, with the largest share in the burden of this disease at global level, India has initiated one of the fastest expanding DOTS programme to not only contain it, but reduce it to the minimal level." Another official said : "We are also aware of the fact that vulnerability of HIV positive people to TB poses a new challenge, that is why in more than a dozen states we have been working on a comprehensive strategy to ensure that the treatment to AIDS patients should not ignore this aspect also." A Stop TB campaign headed by Zambian AIDS activist Winstone Zulu stresses the need for a dual approach to the two diseases.

All-India pre-medical examination on April 11
Monday, March 22, 2004

New Delhi : The preliminary round of the 17th All-India pre-medical/pre-dental entrance examination conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will be held on April 11. Over two lakh students are registered for the test to be held at 424 centres in 31 cities across the country. The CBSE announced that admit cards had been dispatched. In case of non-receipt of admit cards, the candidates may contact CBSE, Delhi, for obtaining duplicate admit cards. Candidates will be required to bring details of their application form and an attested photograph for getting the duplicate card.

Natco Pharma launches anti-cancer drug Geftinib 250-mg
Thursday, March 11, 2004

Mumbai : Natco Pharma Limited announced the launch of its anti-cancer drug Geftinib 250-mg under the brand name "Geftinat". Geftinat is a selective epidermal growth factor receptor in India, the company informed the Stock Exchange. This is the first time the generic version of Geftinat was being introduced. It has been priced at Rs 325 per tablet of 250 mg which is one-tenth of the cost of the international brand presently available in the market. Geftinat aims at presenting a remedy for lung cancer - the most common form of the cancers and is a monotherapy treatment of patients suffering from non-small cell lung cancer.

Indian sex workers prefer female condom
Monday, March 1, 2004

New Delhi : The public sector Hindustan Latex Limited has entered into an agreement with the Female Health Company of the UK for manufacturing and marketing the female condom. Indian sex workers have preferred the female condom primarily for its usefulness with defiant or drunk clients. With India's HIV infected population shooting up to four million, the strong, soft, transparent polyurethane sheath is seen as the surest means to empower the vulnerable women against the onset of the pandemic. The study among sex workers, gays and married couples has placed the woman's choice as a more important factor than higher pleasure level or reliability when compared with the male condom. Initially, the product will be brought in bulk from the London manufacturing unit and lubricated and packaged in Kochi from September. The drug controller-general of India has already cleared the product for marketing. Price clearly is a hindrance in the way of its wider acceptability. After the import duty, its current price in India would be about Rs 45.

SC issues notice to Centre on ‘Indian viagra’

New Delhi : Inability of testing laboratories to check the standard of ‘Indian viagra’, ‘Silagra’ has opened a Pandora’s Box—many new drugs marketed under proper licence in India neither fall under any pharmacopeia nor have any standard or approved quality. 
Advocate D.S. Bhattacharya, who had given the drug for testing at government-approved test laboratory, gathered that “there were many such new drugs available in the market, which do not form part of any pharmacopeia and do not have any standard/approved quality’’. He then decided to approach the supreme court with a writ petition. 
A division bench headed by Justice Ruma Pal has issued notices on the petition to the ministry of health and family welfare, drug controller general of India, drug technical advisory board and Cipla Ltd, which manufactured ‘Silagra’.

No cases of bird flu or highly pathogenic avian influenza in India

New Delhi : There are no cases of bird flu or the highly pathogenic avian influenza in India. It also underscored that there was no human-to-human transmission case in India. The Commissioner, Animal Husbandry, V K Taneja, said that 40 blood samples had been picked up from 11 farms in Hissar, Haryana, and tested at the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal. All of them tested negative for bird flu. Reports of cases from Darjeeling and Murshidabad districts in West Bengal had also been checked. While in Darjeeling the owners themselves culled 1,200 birds as a precautionary measure, in Murshidabad, the birds died due to some other disease. Reports from the North-Eastern States, including Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram, had been followed up for verification and the cases were found to be negative. On the other hand, the Army is now scouting for militant chickens sneaking across the border with a deadly arsenal of bird flu. The Defence Minister, George Fernandes, may not know it but his troops are reported to have adapted well to this new front. On Monday, animal husbandry commissioner V K Taneja had a reassuring message. Bird flu has stayed away and all the "administrative officials, including the military and paramilitary", are on alert in the North-Eastern states bordering Myanmar . Myanmar itself has not reported a case. But that is a small detail. Taneja said border checkposts are on the alert, state veterinarians are scouring poultry farms and farmers have come together in "small discussion" groups. The end result : All is well on this virtual war front.

An Indian Woman gives birth to her won grandchildren

London : A 46-year-old woman in Gujarat has given birth to her own grandchildren, following a deal with her London-based daughter and son-in-law. The embryo was implanted in the woman's womb last year. The woman became a surrogate mother to twins on behalf of her infertile daughter and son-in-law to help them become parents. The couple, who have chosen to remain anonymous, had been told by doctors they could not have children. The reason was that the wife had a rare congenital condition, known as Rokitansky Syndrome, which does not allow the uterus to develop normally. An IVF specialist behind the birth, Dr Nayana Patel, said : "The couple are very happy. They don't feel there is anything wrong with what has happened. They wanted children so badly and could not find anyone else to help them." The couple, who live in Ilford, made the decision with the backing of Dr Patel, a private fertility doctor in Gujarat, where they have relatives. Dr Patel said she encouraged the couple to ask the young woman's own mother to be a surrogate, and then helped persuade the older woman. The twins' father will join his new family in the next few days and the babies are expected to be brought to UK in about eight weeks.

Government bans imports of poultry and processed poultry products

New Delhi : Alarmed by the rapid spread of the deadly bird flu in Asia, Indian Government on announced a series of measures, including a ban on all imports of poultry and processed poultry products. Government has extended the six-month ban on import of domestic and wild birds, hatching eggs, bird semen, fresh meat and processed poultry meat to all countries to prevent bird flu or avian influenza from reaching its shores. Last week, the ban was imposed on imports from South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Pakistan and Japan. India does not import live birds but imports processed poultry meat. Addressing a news conference in New Delhi, the Union Health Minister, Sushma Swaraj, and the Agriculture Minister, Rajnath Singh, said no cases of bird flu have yet been reported in India. The two ministers and senior officials of the health, shipping and railways departments and representatives of the World Health Organisation (WHO) met in Delhi to discuss the problem that has affected at least 10 countries in Asia. India's neighbours, Pakistan and Mayanmar, have also been affected. India imports much of its poultry products from the US, Europe and some South East Asian countries. Swaraj said people crossing the border into India from Pakistan and Myanmar are being screened. Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat in the north and all northeastern states have been put on red alert.

Government bans import of domestic and wild birds

New Delhi : India swung into action following reports of the spread of bird-flu in South-east Asia, including Pakistan. The Government has banned the import of domestic and wild birds following the outbreak of bird flu or pathogenic avian influenza in parts of Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, Japan, Cambodia and, closer home, in Pakistan. Unconfirmed cases have been reported from Myanmar too. An experts' committee will be set up to take preventive measures and monitor the situation on a day-to-day basis. The Union health and family welfare ministry officials said the committee's mandate was to ensure prevention of outbreak of the disease in the country. It seems bird-flu is posing greater threat than SARS. The experts' committee will comprise officials from the department of health and National Institute of Communicable Diseases. A senior Official said : "The virus has killed about two million chickens in neighbouring Pakistan. Though India doesn't import chicken we don't want to take any chances." The infection in Pakistan is said to have been caused by the non-pathogenic H9N1 virus. In India, so far there has been no report of any case.

Union Cabinet clears proposal to impose death sentence on manufacturers of spurious drugs

New Delhi : The Union Cabinet cleared a proposal to impose death sentence on manufacturers of spurious drugs. The Union Cabinet also cleared the proposal to make the penalty more stringent for those who sell or otherwise deal with such drugs. The Health Minister, Sushma Swaraj, said the producers played with the life of innocent people, who bought their medicine in the belief that they would be cured of their illness. She said it was nothing but mass murder, with purely profit as the motive. The law to provide for setting up of special courts for the speedy disposal of cases relating to spurious drugs would be changed. A Bill to incorporate the decision as an amendment to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act would be introduced in the current session of Parliament.

Programme to provide AIDS medicines in government hospitals will first begin in Six States, says Swaraj

New Delhi : The Union Health Minister, Sushma Swaraj, said the programme to provide AIDS medicines in government hospitals will first begin in six States, where the prevalence rate is high. She said anti-retroviral drugs would be made available free to HIV/ AIDS patients in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur and Nagaland from April 1. The supply would initially be to three categories of patients : children of parents living with HIV, women having the infection and men, who suffer from full-blown AIDS. The supply would be provided through Government hospitals and antenatal clinics. The programme would be extended to other parts of the country.

On the other hand, in a revolutionary step, over 800 sex workers in Ahmedabad united under the aegis of "Sakhi Jyot", are in the process of taking life insurance to protect their lives overshadowed by disease and uncertainty. Interestingly, sex workers are taking insurance under the cover of being working, self-employed and even unemployed women as they found that obtaining insurance on their true identity was impossible. Commercial sex workers fall in the high-risk category of contracting AIDS, against which insurance companies do not offer any cover.

Hepatitis-B vaccine makers look overseas

New Delhi : With the domestic Hepatitis B vaccine market in a slump, pharma majors are looking overseas to shore up bottomlines. Wockhardt and Shantha Biotech are taking a lead in tapping foreign markets. Globally, the hepatitis market is estimated at Rs 150 crore while in India the hepatitis-B market is Rs 60 crore, thanks to an overcrowded market. The domestic hepatitis B vaccine market has been degrowing at 37 per cent this year. While the latter has commenced shipment of the 8.5 million doses to Unicef, Wockhardt has also started exporting its vaccine, Biovac-B, to unregulated markets and is expected to scale up the same. Trial shipments of the vaccine to South America and African markets have also been stepped up.

India and Pakistan join hands to guard traditional knowledge of medicine

New Delhi : The statistics of Dr RA Mashelkar, director general, Council of Industrial and Scientific Research, reveal 70 per cent of India and Pakistan's population, 80 per cent of Bangladesh and Bhutan, 70 per cent of Sri Lanka's and three-fourths of Nepal's population dependent on traditional medicine for primary health care. India and Pakistan have joined hands to guard a common frontier -- traditional medicine. The first meet of health ministers of Saarc countries has acted as a catalyst and a powerful lobby will soon emerge from them, with India and Pakistan as pioneers, to guard their traditional knowledge of medicine. Dr Mashelkar said : "There are around 4896 references on 90 medicinal plants in the US patent office database. Out of this 80 per cent of the references are on seven Indian medicinal plants and almost 50 per cent of the patents are linked to traditional medicine."

Mainly married men spread AIDS virus in India : Study

New Delhi : According to a study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, mainly married men, who have unprotected sex with prostitutes, are the biggest culprits when it comes to spreading the AIDS virus in India. According to the study, business, men in service sector and hotel employees, contracted the virus in four of the six most affected states in India. The study, citing India's National Aids Control Organisation, found that more than 85 per cent of India's HIV cases are caused by unsafe sex.

India has taken plunge in developing preventive vaccines

Vadpdara : India has taken the plunge in developing preventive vaccines. Under the prime minister's initiative programme, a chain of research units in India would join hands to develop vaccine for the subtype C, which is prevalent in India. The project will begin in May 2004. The other reputed institutes include NIV, NICED, AIIMS, IISC and NCCS. The assistant director of the National Aids Research Institute (NARI), Pune, one of the institutes to be involved in the vaccine development programme, R Gangakhedkar, said Vaccine development is a tough task. He said : "We cannot bank on the assistance of the developed countries as they would target diseases endemic to their regions and in this case address subtypes prevalent in their region. Second, it is difficult to produce vaccine for HIV as the genomic sequence of the virus is error- prone and has a tendency to change its form each time it multiples.

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